


untitled cyberpunk AU

by kaizoku



Series: Summer Pornathon 2013 [7]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Cyberpunk, Consent Issues, Hacking, M/M, Magic, Robots, Sleep Sex, Summer Pornathon 2013, Team Gluttony, Violence, mechanic Gwen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-08
Updated: 2014-09-08
Packaged: 2018-02-16 14:56:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2274033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaizoku/pseuds/kaizoku
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The one where Arthur is a damaged android and Merlin is a hacker.</p><p>See end note for warnings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	untitled cyberpunk AU

**Author's Note:**

> Challenge 7 of Summer Pornathon: Magic
> 
> This entry tied for 1st place in its group!
> 
> See end note for further warnings.

Merlin's heart skips a beat when he sees the mangled body in a heap of parts, before his brain catches up.

It's in decent shape, except for the hole where exposed cables protrude from ragged but real-looking skin and the mark on the face like a bad bruise, below one empty blue eye.

The back of its neck is rough, serial numbers filed away, but he recognises the style of the Camelot series. Everyone's seen the glossy ad vids.

When Merlin touches it, something sparks under his skin like static and his eyes feel hot. He can't go deeper, not out in the open like this. But that's how he knows it's not dead and why he hands over the creds, more than he probably should for a broken droid. He ignores the yardman's lurid grin.

*

He takes it to Gwen first, because she's better with hardware.

"You'll need a pro-shop for the skin," Gwen says, examining the wound critically. They both know that's too risky.

"Just do what you can," Merlin says.

*

The way his mum tells it, when Merlin was five, he crawled into her lap and did something that made a password dialog come up. While she tried to move his childish hands, some keys were pushed, that were, coincidentally, correct. The next day Hunith lost her job. Machines don't work like that, they said.

At 12, the secret police didn't believe him either, so he showed them. When his eyes flashed hot and golden, one of them pissed himself. They beat him so badly he couldn't see for days.

There are benefits. One of his parlor tricks is to order food that's not on the menu screen and have it appear in the meal slot.

It's also why he lives underground, in a room full of screens, taking jobs from anonymous sources that pay handsomely and don't ask questions.

* 

It's called Arthur, model no. 48690317. Even if the droid is one of a thousand replicas, Merlin can't keep thinking of him as "it." Not when he has a name and he's lying naked on Merlin's bed.

At some point, Merlin will have to find him some clothes.

The codebase is heavily encrypted, but Merlin has a couple programs he uses for this kind of work. After about 14 hours, he's swimming in Arthur-world, scrolling through layers of complex algorithms. He can sense the edges of the AI architecture, tantalizingly buried, but he makes himself run the diagnosis and repair modules first.

Merlin gets himself a sandwich. Nothing much happens. After a while, Arthur's skin feels warmer.

*

Merlin wakes up to that same feeling, only more intense, like electricity buzzing through him, and he must be having a wet dream, only instead of fading away, it just gets better.

The room is barely lit by the red diodes of his sleeping machines, and when he looks down, he sees Arthur kneeling over him, his mouth on Merlin's cock, moving up and down, relentless. 

Arthur's eyes glitter at him, and it _feels_ like a real mouth, hot and tight with just a hint of teeth, and then Arthur takes him deeper. Merlin bucks up, beyond thought, coming in wracking spurts down Arthur's throat.

"What the… hell?" He manages, panting. "Are you - ? I didn't even think you were functioning."

Arthur settles next to him, gloriously naked. He licks his lips and Merlin wonders if there's a piece of code somewhere that lets him taste it.

"Looks like you fixed me."

"So you did that in what? Gratitude?"

"Service robot," Arthur replies, as if that explains - anything.

"Um. Question. Does that mean you serve me?" Merlin asks.

Arthur doesn't answer, because that's when Merlin's proximity alarms go off, and he's out of bed as fast as his wobbly legs will carry him.

"Oh, shit," he says, tapping at a screen. "We need to get out of here."

*

Merlin has a plan for this eventuality, which amounts to: lay low and let it blow over.

Arthur has other ideas. Like knocking out the cops that try to ambush them, stealing a transport, and sneaking into Avalon Tower.

Merlin's never hacked anything this big before, but when he connects to the interface, he can feel the system spreading out for him like a dark city. Arthur is at his back, strong and solid, and Merlin reaches inside him and finds the information he needs, slides it like a key into the lock.

And changes everything.

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: description of injuries, references to violence, non-consensual oral sex (one character is sleeping when it starts)
> 
> I'm still planning to turn this idea into a longer story... someday... but I wanted to put it up in its original pornathon form.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [eyes (the snapshots from digital cameras remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2478020) by [itachitachi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/itachitachi/pseuds/itachitachi)




End file.
